How a ring that smuggled immigrants to European countries through Greece operated
A well-established operation promoting illegal immigrants from Greece to other European countries, with forged and stolen travel documents and passports, had set up an Iranian man based in Athens and five other people including a 34-year-old Romanian woman.
The defendants trafficked the documents through the telegraph application against some hundreds of euros to foreigners who arrived illegally in our country and wanted to go to others European countries.
The circuit has been operating since 2019 and has been systematically bringing in migrants from Iran to Turkey and then via Greece, they were sent by air and with plastic documents that had been procured via “telegram” to England, Germany and Spain.
The members of the ring established channels within the app, in which they could either as potential “suppliers” post photos of travel documents they had for sale, or as potential “regular users” they could not choose between available travel documents the desired travel document to be purchased.
This particular method ensured the international circulation of documents, bringing together “suppliers” of travel documents and “ordinary users” prospective buyers. The prices of the documents varied from 200 to 1,500 euros eachdepending on the type of document and its country of origin.
The documents were delivered to the purchasers, either by mail or by mail, and payments for the documents were mainly made through money courier companies. In addition, a parallel action of the ring was found, which was related to the end of illegal migrations of immigrants from Turkey to Greece and then to other European countries. The immigrants emerged from the Alexandroupoli and ended up in an apartment in Cell managed by a 30-year-old Iranian man who was arrested.
During the trial, which took place a few days ago, the Iranian, who is considered the “mastermind” in the case, was convicted, but is preparing to appeal since denies all charges.The Iranian defense attorney Mr. Giannis Barkagiannis speaking to protothema.gr stated that: “A case file with endless ambiguities and vagueness. The American and German authorities were the ones who referred the case to the respective Greek authorities, stating that acts may be involved, it may be considered as “committed” and they were referred to the audience. The criminal organization did not emerge at the hearing stage and the money laundering was also dropped. My principal and alleged leader was accused of facilitating foreigners, providing them with illegal residence and providing passports. He categorically denies the acts and will appeal.”
Important for the authorities was testimony of an Iranian witness who arrived in our country in 2020 and reported how the circuits from Iran operate. As he testified, he came to Greece via IstanbulAndrianoupolis and passed to Alexandroupolis.
“I gave 12,000 euros to come to Greece to someone in Iran. From Alexandroupoli I went to Thessaloniki hiding in a car with five other immigrants. When we arrived in Thessaloniki we entered the train two by two and came to Athens. The whole trafficking deal has been organized in Iran and a member of the ring with the name “Mehdi” he accompanied me to Constantinople. Then, as “Mehdi” had told me, as soon as I arrived in Thessaloniki I would take the train and I would arrive in Athens, where other associates of theirs were waiting for me. Indeed when we arrived in Athens he came and we took from it Larissa station “Bahman” and he took us to a cafe in Acharnon to introduce us to another person who would take over our stay and our further promotion in Europe. I want to go to Germany,” he said.
Following his testimony, the Iranian witness reported that he was taken to apartment in Kypseli which was managed by the defendant’s 30-year-old compatriot as the “brain” of the organization with the forged and stolen travel documents.
“In the apartment I saw other Iranians sleeping inside and all of us we paid 100 euros in advance for a month to “Vahid”. For my entire promotion process at Germany I was communicating with “Mehdi” but he told me that I should talk to his brother “Bahman” because he is afraid to come to Greece because the police are looking for him. “Bahman” and “Vahid” are very good friends and used to come to the house often. I have heard them talking about money and passports, and in particular sometimes “Bahman” had made them fake passports for ‘Vahid’ and had come to deliver them and take his money.’
The witness also reported that they gave him fake Spanish ID and a ticket to travel but when they took him to the airport before he got on the plane he was stopped and he did not board. When he left the airport, the so-called “Vahid” was waiting for him and took him back to Kypseli’s apartment.
“I know ‘Bahman’ and ‘Vahid’ are traffickers and they get from 10,000 to 15,000 euros for an immigrant. In my case, they suggested I go to Spain with 5,000 euros.”
Also, the Witness testified that all the Iranians who were in the Kipseli apartment wanted to go to other European countries, mainly France, Germany and Spain but they were not allowed to leave the apartment to avoid being caught by the police since they had no papers. At the same time, the witness testified that the conversations took place through applications.
According to the case file, the circuit posted stolen passports and plastic travel documents on the telegram application, while information from the American authorities, the German authorities and of course the Europol.
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